Guernsey has been associated with royalty since 1066, when William Duke of Normandy became King of England and the Crown possessed the Channel Islands. That loyalty to the Crown was amply demonstrated by the island’s St Martin’s Lodge no. 4142, when it had the honour and privilege to provide royal visitors with the use of the Worshipful Master and Past Master’s chairs a year after the Lodge’s consecration in 1921.
The chairs are traditionally only used on each monarch’s first visit to the island, which is why they have only been used a few times, despite numerous royal visits.
The latest outing came on 16 July when His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived by helicopter, after which they travelled to St Peter Port. On arrival to the seafront, they were greeted by a 21-gun salute, followed by an open-air States of Guernsey Government meeting when both King Charles and Camilla viewed proceedings from those very same chairs.
